Raised floor panels are commonly used in rooms housing electronic equipment, such as servers and scanning electron microscopes. The raised floor panels raise a walking level of the room above the structural level of the room in order to provide a space for cables and tools (e.g. transformers) to power various pieces of electronic equipment. Perforated raised floor panels also enhance ventilation. Electronic equipment generates a large amount of heat and failure to properly remove heat can cause the equipment to malfunction.
The cables can also cause electronic equipment to malfunction. As current passes through the cables, a magnetic field is generated based on Ampere's Law. The magnetic field radiates from the cable and impacts the performance of nearby electronic equipment. As the current in the cable increases, the strength and size of the magnetic field also increases. Conventional raised floor panels provide no means to block or reduce the magnetic field generated by the cables (or transformers).
Conventional techniques for minimizing the magnetic field involve wrapping tools with a magnetic shielding lamina. The lamina is expensive and time consuming to apply and provides only minimal reduction in the magnetic field. Wrapping the tools also fails to account for the magnetic field created by the cables.